Many senior advisors (SAs) are nearing retirement or otherwise want to leave a professional services advising business (e.g., wealth management, consulting, legal). These SAs typically have established clients that form the basis of an advising practice, many of whom will continue to desire advice after the SA's retirement. To ensure continued client relationships (e.g., to maintain an SA's book of business within an organization/company), an SA may desire to partner with a junior advisor (JA) who is well-suited to transition into the SA's business. JAs often seek such opportunities to gain experience and establish their own practices. Professionals may desire partnerships for other purposes as well, for example to expand a range of services offered or target new demographics of clients. Thus, the creation of new relationships between SAs and JAs is crucial to the future of the advisement industry.
Currently, local in-person networking, social encounters, word of mouth, or generic networking websites (e.g., LinkedIn) provide limited opportunities for the creation of relationships between SAs and JAs. These opportunities are limited geographically and by the scope of one's social interactions and networks. The unsystematic nature of existing SA-JA networking possibilities makes it challenging for any party to organically identify good matches from among many possible relationships, for example because of the limited information shared in most networking situations and the challenge in analyzing and comparing information about multiple potential partners. SAs and JAs therefore often have difficulty in identifying and connecting with counterparts best suited for business partnerships. A need exists for a matchmaking tool that facilitates the creation of mutually-beneficial, unbiased new relationships between SAs and JAs.